


Blue Leader

by Ninjy (SparkyFrootloops)



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, No April, after the cliffhanger, no one else really - Freeform, or casey, or draxum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:34:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27614932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SparkyFrootloops/pseuds/Ninjy
Summary: “Blue you’re the leader now.”Raph was going to admit. That one hurt.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 112





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because I couldn't get a line out of my head, so I finally wrote it. Enjoy!

_“Blue you’re the leader now.”_  
  
Raph was going to admit. That one hurt. After the shock, and after his brother’s shouting – _“You can’t be serious-” “LeOOoo??? Hashtag nooo!-” “But what about Raph?-”_ — and their father’s stern look, Raph’s little brothers settled down and Splinter sends them on ahead to the lair while he stayed behind with their pop.  
  
Raph didn’t look at his dad right away, instead, he was focusing all his attention on a single spot still trying to process what he had just heard.  
  
“Are you upset?” Splinter finally asks.  
  
Usually, Raph would be calm. Usually, he could talk things through, or let it go, and usually, he’d say he needed a moment.  
  
This was not one of those times.  
  
“Yes, I’m upset!” Raph snapped, surprising Splinter. Red hadn’t had such a big outburst in many years.  
  
“Leo as the leader? I can’t say he wouldn’t not be a good leader, but it’s only been a few weeks since we defeated the Shredder! We saved the city, both the Hidden and New York, and you're making Leo the leader? What about what I…” He stops his shouting and gives his dad a grave look. His shoulders drop a bit and he looks at the ground again.  
  
“Was I- was I not good enough?” Raph asks, even when he feels he doesn’t want to know the answer. Yes, he freaked out, but he helped his family find their Hamato ninpo and got them ready to face the Shredder as a team.  
  
Had that not been enough?  
  
Raph suddenly has tears streaming down his face, and he feels… he feels angry, and upset and hadn’t he done enough?  
  
“Raphael.” Splinter says, calmly and sternly making Raph look at him instead of the spot on the ground. Raph stands up a little straighter, wiping away his tears, and inhales as Splinter walks over to him to get a little closer and lays his hand over his son’s.  
  
“Your hands are shaking my son.”  
  
Raph unclenches his fist and tries to calm down. He inhales again holding it in for a second before letting his breath out and feels himself slowly get himself under control.  
  
“Sit with me Red.”  
  
He sits across from Master Splinter, still trying to understand why this was even being discussed. So maybe he’s still upset, and trying not to cry again, but why was dad doing this?  
  
“Let me make this clear, Red,” Splinter begins, “you are a good leader. A great one. During our most dangerous mission, and a battle between good and evil we prevailed. You led your brothers and April valiantly; you protected our family and I could not be more proud of what you accomplished. That was more than enough Raphael. Now… you need to rest.”  
  
Raph is taken back. Rest?  
  
“I- I don’t need to rest Pops, we’ve been-I’ve been okay, I can still lead.”  
  
“Okay is not your best my son. You took the weight of the world onto your shoulders, and that is not a weight you should have to carry alone. You have your brothers, and our family is safe since the Shredder’s defeat, but you have not been complete my son, and it has… worried me. I am not asking you to step down as a leader because you are not good enough, but I do want you to rest, and let Leonardo take your place.”  
  
“… Why Leo?” Raph asks, he’s calmer now, and slowly trying to wrap his head around this.  
  
Splinter smiles, “Why not Leo?”  
  
“He’s… he can be self-centered. Over confidant, a goofball and can’t take things seriously sometimes.”  
  
Splinter hums and gestures for him to keep going.  
  
“Leo’s all those things… But… he also plans twenty steps ahead without explaining what he’s doing sometimes.” Raph is slowly thinking it over, he looks down at his lap and remembers times when Leo would lead the charge, their first mission Leo was making sure all of them were confident in themselves to do this. It’s been really helpful until Raph could finally take the lead, and Leo could lean back in the background. “He gets things done in crazy ways, but they work.”  
  
Splinter barks out a loud laugh. A laugh that makes Raph smile a bit.  
  
“That is true,” Splinter says wiping at his tears, “but his plans are well executed. He sees things quickly and can adjust his plans on the fly. He acts with confidence to see his plans through, and they work. I’ve seen just a glimpse of his potential when we were facing Big Mama who is one of the most intelligent, most ruthless yokai I have ever meet, and he walked circles around her. It was very impressive, but do not tell him I said that.”  
  
Raph nods letting out a small chuckle.  
  
Splinter gets up and gestures for Raph to stay seated.  
  
“Leonardo needs a place where he can grow his potential, and I think when he has to lead instead of letting someone else take on that responsibility it would allow him to do so.” Splinter walks over to Raph placing a hand on his shoulder.  
  
“Does that make my decision clear Raph?”  
  
Now… this didn’t feel like he was losing his place as a leader, but at the same time, Raph still wasn’t sure. Was Leo that much better? What did this mean for him?  
  
“Raphael, I… I will not lie. It is not that you are not a good leader, but after what has happened with the Shredder, I think being the leader of this team may not be what you were meant to be.” Splinter places his hand behind his back as Raph pulls away from him.  
  
“Then what am I Pops?” Raph asks, a little louder and a little more guarded. “If I’m not the leader, then what am I?”  
  
“Our protector.”  
  
Raph looks confused as if being the leader and being the protector were the same thing.  
  
“How does that work?” He asks. Splinter strokes his beard, considering his words first.  
  
“While leading comes with protecting, you cannot always do both.” Splinter began to explain, “You are always watching your brother’s every step and planning each mission. Yes, you all pitch in ideas and at times one of your little brothers is leading the charge. But the role of protector never changes, it always comes down to you.”  
  
Splinter taps his son’s forehead.  
  
“It is not that Blue is a better leader, far from it. He still needs to learn how, and I hope you can teach him. You are still the oldest, still the future head of this family when I am no more. But your brother’s must grow with you. They will always be your younger brothers, the same way you will always be my sons. But you are not a little boy anymore, none of you are. Except for Orange.”  
  
Raph giggles at that, completely agreeing.  
  
“Mikey is still a baby, but don’t let him hear you say that.”  
  
They both snickered and the tension slowly begins to melt away.  
  
“I hope we have come to an understanding of my decision. Blue is the leader now, so please rest. Lend a hand when he needs it, but follow his lead and watch. You will defiantly see what I did that day. You would have also been very proud of what Blue can do when he puts his focus on the mission.”  
  
Raph nodded his head and looks down at his hands. This did make him feel better… but it still kind of sucked.  
  
“I’m still the big brother though… right?” Raph asks looking up at Splinter, “ ‘Cuz that would be really weird dad.”  
  
Splinter can't help his small laugh at the question. “That is something no one is going to change my son. You aren’t Big Red for nothing.”  
  
Raph nods, finally feeling calm, and with no other questions, he starts to get up, only to stop when Splinter pulls him in for a hug.  
  
He sinks into the hug a bit, gentle with his strength, even if it is Master Splinter. He snuggles into the hug before pulling away.  
  
“Thanks, dad.”  
  
“Thank you Red, now let’s go home.” Splinter hops onto his son’s shoulder and settles as Raph takes off.  
  
“By the way, I’m going to leave the explaining to you. From how they responded earlier, your brothers are not going to be thrilled at the idea of being led by Blue.”  
  
Raph laughs, “I got them pop. I am the family’s protector.” Raph says it, and can’t help how right that sounds. He is always looking out for his family, and maybe he does need a break, just until he was 100%. Which meant he was going to get to slack off while Leo chased Don and Mikey around.  
  
Raph couldn’t help the smile on his face as he made his way home. This was starting to sound like a really good idea.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leading was for Raph, and Leo would happily follow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there is a part two... Hi! Welcome back!  
> Woo, this was fun to write. I was fighting with myself on how to end this, especially since only half of it was planned out in my head while the rest was all dust in the wind, but dust I had to glue together and make into something.  
> I really do love these guys, and this is coming from someone who has watched the ninja turtles since they were seven-years-old.  
> Please leave a comment, and a quick shout out to Sunball! Comments feed my creativity!

Their dad shooed them away and with one last glance at Raph, the youngest of the Hamato Clan made their way back home.

Leo opened a portal, letting Donnie and Mikey step through first.

It did cross Leo’s mind to stay behind and listen in on them, but the look on Splinter’s face made him doublethink that. Leo sighed before he stepped through the portal, looking back and barely catching the beginning of the conversation.

He just heard Raph raise his voice before the portal snapped shut behind him.

He really wasn’t loving this as he gave a groan and fell back on the ground with a loud thud.

“This is stupid.” He grumbled arms crossed as the three youngest now got to have their own meeting without Raph or Pops around.

“Dad can’t do this! Raph’s an awesome leader!” Leo said throwing his arms out and got two nods of approval from his brothers.

“You’re not jumping on a chance to lead the team? Not that I’m disagreeing with you, you would indeed make a horrible leader.” Donnie added with a nod. 

“Thanks.” Leo says, rolling his eyes before turning to his side, getting up and walking past the skate ramp and closer to the entrance of the Lair with Mikey and Donnie following behind him.

“Raph is gonna talk to Dad, there’s no way I’m gonna be the leader.” Leo grumbles mostly to himself, but loud enough for the others to hear.

“I hate to agree with you, and this will now be the second time it has happened, but I really do agree,” Donnie adds, while Mikey stays silent. “Not that I don’t trust you, but you are on my list of people most likely to betray me.”

“Yeah exactly- wait you have a list?” Leo asks turning towards Donnie.

“Yeah, I have a list for a lot of things.”

“Where am I on the list?”

“I will give you one guess, Nardo.”

While his brothers bickered, Mikey had been waiting anxiously by the door. He didn’t like the look on Raph’s face when Dad said Leo would be the leader, and he especially didn’t like that they didn’t even get to argue about it. It wasn’t fair. 

“Guys?” Mikey asked turning to his bickering brothers, only to yell again, this time with a more delicate touch, “GUYS! SHUT UP!”

Leo and Donnie stopped both turning towards their younger brother.

“I’m worried about Raph!” Mikey finally said, “Why is dad making Leo leader? Raph’s done a great job! He’s a good leader why would he replace him now?”

This had them all thinking.

“Well I don’t know, but if Dad’s replacing our leader shouldn’t we ask our leader-to-be?” Donnie asked sarcastically, turning to Leo who shook his head.

“Hey I don’t want to be leader, it’s not like I asked to be leader.”

“Then why does Dad want to make you the leader?”

“I don’t know!” Leo shouted back, and now they were back to bickering. 

Mikey sighed and plopped down near the entrance with his arms crossed. This wasn’t getting them anywhere, and the only ones who could settle this were out there having their own conversation.

But what could he figure out here? Without Donnie and Leo who had decided to wrestle instead of arguing.

If Leo was gonna be leader, had Raph done something wrong? 

Mikey sat on that thought trying to remember if Raph had done anything, but nothing came to mind. Nothing wrong, but maybe Raph had been a… little off?

Mikey blinked at the thought. He could recall small things. Ever since they had found and settled into the New Lair, they had been taking a break from big missions. Instead, they decided to just stick together underground. 

Mikey had seen how Raph would break a plate in his hand or would punch one of their training dummies a little too hard and break it. Usually, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but Mikey saw how… shaky Raph seemed to get after those incidents. Then he’d just get really quiet.

Maybe it was nothing, maybe he was just looking too much into nothing, but Raph just felt off.

“Guy!” He yells out, grabbing their attention again. Donnie was in the middle of trying to yank Leo’s foot off. “Can we not right now?” Mikey huffs before quietly asking, “Do you think this could really hurt Raph? What if Dad doesn’t change his mind?” The younger brothers look at each other anxiously but remain by the entrance of the lair not wanting to be anywhere else.

The twins rolled off each other and joined Mikey by the entrance.

Leo joins Mikey on the ground throwing an arm over his shoulder.

“We’ll just let him know how much of a good leader he is, no matter what Papa says.” Donnie said, Leo agreeing with a nod.

“Yeah Mikey, even if Raph agrees to it, doesn’t mean we have to. I mean not much of an argument if me and Don are on the same side about this, right?”

“Right.” Mikey nodded, but he still wasn’t sure.

Finally, they hear heavy footsteps.

Leo and Mikey scrambled to stand as their missing family members stepped into the light. 

Master Splinter jumped off Raph’s shoulder humming as he made his way to the living room.

“Oh good, you are all here! Red has something he wants to share, and while you four discuss, I have my reruns to watch! Bye!” Splinter vanishes and they all look up to Raph. Mikey huddles the closest noticing that his big brother’s bandana is still a bit damped.

“So, did you sort this out with Dad? Because let me tell you me leading the team is the worst joke I have ever heard.” Leo adds, hoping to break the tension.

“And it’s not like we’d ever let Leo lead either, don’t worry captain we know who the real leader of this team is.” Donnie says confidently, sticking his tongue at Leo earning him a grumble and swat of a hand.

The little brothers look up at Raph, waiting for him to join in the horseplay, to show it was alright, but when Raph doesn’t say anything they all frown.

“Raph?” Mikey asks as Raph takes a breath.

“Leo, you’re the leader now.” Raph finally says and now he’s the one receiving end of their shouting and disagreement. Especially from Don and Mikey.

Leo for once doesn’t have anything to say.

“There’s no way Leo is the leader! Not even in a different parallel universe is he ever going to be leader-”

“But you’re the leader! You’re our big brother for a reason!” Mikey shouts, clinging to Raph’s arm even as Raph lifted his arm up leaving his little brother dangling off the ground.

“Stop!” Raph shouts over them making them all stop yelling over each other. “Just… stop. I talked to Pops about it and we discussed why. And in conclusion, Leo is going to be the leader. For now.” He finishes while putting Mikey back on the ground.

“Well I don’t want to lead, I’m the face man! The jokester, the cool bad boy of the group! You don’t actually expect me to lead? Trust me, I am not that guy.” Leo smirks, hoping that will be the end of it, but Raph is serious. He has his serious Raph face and wasn’t budging either.

He’s actually serious about this.

“You… you can’t be serious?” Leo ask and now all his brothers were looking at Raph wanting an explanation.

“I…” Raph was wondering how he could explain this without sounding like he’d given up. He was nervous now, but these were his brother’s. He trusted them, and he needed to trust Leo even when it seemed Leo didn’t trust himself.

“I… need a break.” Raph began, opening up about what was on his mind. “It’s not that I don’t want to be a leader, or that I’m a bad one. I talked to Dad about this. He isn’t saying this to mess with us, and we aren’t calling Leo the leader ‘just because’.” Raph quotes with his fingers. “and I’ll admit I wasn’t all on board either, but I needed to face facts.” Raph made sure his brothers were listening to him, and not rolling their eyes. Surprisingly he had their full attention.

“I’m… tired.” Raph explained, rubbing at the back of his neck, they could probably smell ‘I’m kina nervous’ stink, which wasn’t helping. “After the Shredder, after everything we’ve been through as a team, I should feel… better, but I don’t.” Raph looked down at his hand. It was shaking again.  
“I’ve been telling myself I’ll get past it, that I’m okay, but sometimes I don’t feel all there. I’m… not all okay. But it’s nothing crazy, and I’m going to work with Sensei to get through this, but while I take a break, we need someone to lead the team and that’s you, Leo.” 

He looks at Leo sternly, his gaze unwavering even as Leo looks away.

“We just… we just won’t go on missions-” Leo tries, not loving how this conversation was going.

“New York still needs the mad dogz though, and you guys can’t tell me you haven’t been itching to go back out there to kick butt. Can you?”

No one answered.

“Exactly. We can still go on missions, but Leo is gonna be leading them.”

“But what about-”

“Do you trust me?” Raph asked cutting Leo off. 

Donnie, Leo and Mikey nodded. Of course, they did.

“Of course, we do Raph, but Leo would be a horrible leader which is why we trust you to lead. No offense Leon.” Donnie added.

“No, no, I’m with you.” Leo says not offended in the slightest.

Raph smiled reassuringly, “Guys it’s only for a while until I’m back on my feet. Is that okay?”

That no one could argue with. 

“Then trust me on this. This is only for a little while so don’t worry about it. And this doesn’t change the fact that I’m still your big brother, and your all my little bros no matter who’s leading the team, whether it’s Leo, or Don, or maybe even Mikey one day.”

Mikey tucked his head into his shell a bit when Raph looked at him, oh no way was he ever gonna want that responsibility.

Blinking at the sudden thought, Mikey felt like he understood the whole picture. The idea of being responsible for everyone on the team…

“Oh, I get it now.” Mikey finally spoke up, smiling up at Raph.

“What do you get?” Raph asked.

“Leo’s gonna have to learn to be responsible, and this is gonna really tests that huh?”

Raph smirked, snapping his fingers.

“Bingo little brother.”

Donnie made a thoughtful sound and looked at Leo seeing a new perspective in this. The idea of having to listen to Leon was a nightmare, but now having Leo take the blame if something went horribly wrong...

“No wait, that’s not- you guys can’t-” Leo began to stammer out, suddenly finding himself in a very unwanted spotlight.

Oh yeah, that changed Donnie’s mind completely.

“Oh, great fearless leader, what are your first orders?” Donnie asked giving Leo a mock bow. “We will follow you into battle, and hopefully you won’t mess it up.” Donnie chuckled as Mikey laughed behind him.

“Fearless leader?” Mikey laughed, “I like that!” Mikey added hopping over to Leo and giving him a salute, “Mikey reporting for duty oh fearless leader!”

“I hate you guys; I hate all of you, I disown all of you,” Leo said even as his little brothers laughed and left, feeling a lot better about this new dynamic.

“Oh, does that mean Raph can’t get mad if we don’t show up for training?” Mikey asked as he left with Donnie feeling the conversation end and wanting to do something else. Epically after all the worrying, they had done earlier.

Leo groaned, already hating this.

“Hey.” Raph says making Leo look up at him as he places his hand on his little brother’s shoulder, “Being leader isn’t so bad, you got the whole planning thing down, you just gotta work on teamwork.”

“You can’t actually expect me to lead Raph, we went through this, you’ve gotten better at plans!”

“Thanks, but I need you to do this Leo, and you won’t be alone in this, you’ll just be taking up some of the slack. Until I’m back on my feet. That sounds okay, right?”

Leo grumbled but nodded, “… just until you’re better. Thanks for telling us Big Brother.”

Raph smiles and they join the rest of their family in the living room.

Leo sits in his spot watching everyone settle in for the evening.

It was only for a little while, just until Raph felt better, and they would go back to their awesome team with Raph in the Captain’s chair. Then everything would go back to normal, and he could go back to being their awesome jokester and face guy. That was his role, that’s what he was good at.

Leading was for Raph, and Leo would happily follow.

**Author's Note:**

> The line was, "Not the leader, but protector." It doesn't appear as I had thought of it, but I like how it turned out. It's also 2 A.M. :D I hope you liked what I wrote, maybe I'll add our little turtles' reaction in a later chapter. Until then, have a good day!


End file.
